


It'll Be Fine

by rosekings



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Discussion of Abortion, Gen, pre-Jonathan, this is not a happy romantic joyce/lonnie story i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 13:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13682910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosekings/pseuds/rosekings
Summary: Joyce Horowitz gets the news in 1967, the year she turns 25. Subsequently, the fighting starts that same year.





	It'll Be Fine

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings for language and discussion of abortion.**
> 
> for jazz!

Joyce Horowitz gets the news in 1967, the year she turns 25. Subsequently, the fighting starts that same year.

Twirling her way inside her and Lonnie's tiny house in the suburbs of Hawkins, she drops her keys in the bowl on the kitchen counter and heads to the bathroom. She closes the door, stares into the mirror. A grinning young woman looks back at her, light brown hair falling in curls around her shoulders and ecstasy painted across her face. The words that Doctor Owens spoke just twenty minutes ago keep replaying in Joyce's mind: _"You're positive, Joyce."_

She's pregnant! She's going to have a _kid!_ Her and _Lonnie_ are going to have a kid!

The moment that Lonnie crosses her mind, her excitement falters and she sits back on the edge of the bathtub, a hand on her stomach. She hasn't seen Lonnie yet, hasn't mentioned that she missed her last period or even that she was going to the doctor today. _Telling him won't be a problem,_ she thinks. _He'll be excited._ But as much as she wants to hope that, she knows better, and she hates it. She hates not being able to totally rely on Lonnie. And if she's being honest with herself, their relationship has been rocky since they moved in together two years ago after they graduated.

Outside their bedroom, the front door opens and closes. Joyce takes a deep breath, shaking her head. _It'll be fine. This is going to make things better. You're going to start a family, for crying out loud._

"Joyce? You here?"

She puts a smile on her face and walks into the living room. Lonnie smiles at her, shrugging off his coat.

"Hey, Lonnie. Can we talk?"

Lonnie grabs a beer from the fridge and looks at her expectantly. "What's up?"

She hesitates, wringing her hands together. She could divert, wait until she's visibly pregnant to tell him. But no, this is his kid too, and he should know. _It'll be fine._

"Joyce?"

"I'm pregnant."

Lonnie's beer freezes halfway to his mouth. He shakes his head as if he's misheard. "What?"

"I'm - I'm pregnant, Lonnie." She tries for a smile, as if that will make it all better, but Lonnie is still staring at her.

"Is it mine?"

"Of course. Whose else would it be?"

Lonnie shrugs, finally getting his beer all the way to his mouth. "Hopper's."

Joyce laughs in disbelief. "You think I'm cheating on you with Jim Hopper?"

"Maybe."

"I love _you,_ Lonnie." Even before Joyce says it, she knows the words are a lie. When did she stop loving him? "Besides, Hopper left years ago."

Lonnie shrugs again. He takes another drink, not meeting Joyce's eyes. The silence stretches out between them like a long rubber band that neither of them wants to snap first. Out the kitchen window, Joyce can see kids biking as fast as they can to catch up with the ice cream truck. She always hated that truck - its song would get stuck in her head for days on end and drive her mad. 

"Lonnie?" she asks after several minutes of staring at Lonnie and his thinking face. "This is a _good_ thing. We're going to have a family."

Lonnie shakes his head. "No." The simple word and the conviction in his eyes chills Joyce's blood.

"What do you mean, no?"

"We'll have to get rid of it. We can't support a kid right now, Joyce. It's as simple as that."

 _Get rid of it?_ "Are you fucking insane?" Her fingernails dig into her palms as she struggles to maintain her composure. "This is our _kid._ I got off my pills four months ago so this could happen!"

Lonnie's eyebrows knit together. "You haven't been on your pill?"

Joyce freezes, realizing this was yet another fact she hadn't told him. "No, I - I thought you wanted a family too."

"You should have asked me!"

"We've been dating for six years and living together for two. You knew this would come up eventually. Hell, we talked about this a year ago! You said you _wanted_ a kid!"

"Yeah, but I didn't think it'd actually happen. I didn't - we can't afford to raise a child." Lonnie scratches at his stubble, diverting his eyes to the table and his empty beer can. "The hospital will do it. It'll cost a bit, but not near as much as it would take to actually have this kid."

Joyce is pretty sure her palms are bleeding now. She can't believe what this man is saying. "You want to _kill_ my _baby?_ " she whispers.

"It's not my fault you got knocked up, Joyce! It's yours for not talking to me first!"

A new kind of hatred surges up in Joyce, flashing red across her vision. She's never been this angry and disgusted with Lonnie before, not even when he slept with Karen Mathers and she forgave him for some goddamn reason. 

Lonnie hasn't noticed her rage yet. He's got the phonebook out, flipping through to find the hospital's number. "I'll make an appointment for tomorrow."

"I fucking _dare_ you. You are _not_ taking this child from me. It's _mine._ "

Lonnie looks at her. "Yeah? It's me or the kid, Joyce."

"Then you can leave!" In that moment, Joyce means it. She wants her child. She wants to raise some good into the world. She wants to love someone unconditionally, and Lonnie is not that someone.

Lonnie laughs, pointing a finger at her. "You need me. I'm the only thing keeping us afloat. If I leave now, you'll go broke in a month and you and your precious baby will be sleeping on the streets."

That drives a wedge into Joyce's anger. As much as she hates it, he's right. She doesn't want her child to be starving or sleeping on the concrete. She wants it to have a bed and a roof and a loving father. _Two out of three?_

Her ire fades a little bit, and she knows she's about to drag herself into the most miserable compromise of her life. "Do you love me, Lonnie?" she asks quietly.

Lonnie gives her a hard stare before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

Joyce holds her head up, wiping her bloody hands on the back of her jeans. "Then let's get married. That's what you've wanted since we graduated, right? To be married?"

Going by the look on Lonnie's face, she knows she's won this argument. She never wanted to get married to him because her gut told her it would be a bad commitment to make, but she knows Lonnie wouldn't be able to stand the whispers of town if he had a kid out of wedlock. Too late to back down now.

"We'll get married and have this baby. People won't talk, and I can keep my child, and you'll have what you've always wanted."

Lonnie takes a moment to think it over, and when he finally nods his head, Joyce feels like the world has been lifted off her shoulders.

"Fine. That's what we'll do."

Joyce sighs in relief. "That's what we'll do."

Lonnie grabs another beer and starts smiling as if their fight never happened. As if all his anger just evaporated into thin air. "Joyce Horowitz is going to marry me," he says as he goes to turn on the TV. "Joyce Horowitz is…"

Joyce escapes as quietly as she can to the bathroom. She looks into the mirror for the second time that day and the eyes that stare back at her are hollow, lifeless. She runs a hand over her stomach, swallowing back her fear. _It'll be fine._

* * *

Two hours after she signs a legal document declaring her matrimony to the man she's known since high school, Joyce Byers sits in her bathtub, pressing her palms into her eyes to stop the tears. She's three months pregnant and she's never been more terrified of her future.

**Author's Note:**

> yell at me on [tumblr](https://dustinhendrsn.tumblr.com)


End file.
